COUNTRY RADIO SEMINAR CONCLUDES WITH A STELLAR “NEW FACES OF COUNTRY MUSIC®”

Lee Brice opening at the New Faces (Photo: Jack Waren/NMM)

Lee Brice, Steel Magnolia, Josh Thompson , The Band Perry and Jerrod Niemann performed in the sold-out New Faces Of Country Music show concluding this year’s Country Radio Seminar held in Nashville. This yearly event puts the spotlight on the hottest acts that have made big impact in radio. The performers in the show were the top five most voted artists fitting that criteria.

Curb Records artist Lee Brice opened the night at the CMA Performance Hall with a set of 4 songs ending with his hit single “Love Like Crazy” which now holds the record of the longest running charted single in country music history of Billboard Hot Country® Chart. The same single was also named #1 Country song of 2010. He is headed to the ACM Awards with two nominations.

Vocal duo Steel Magnolia, signed to Big Machine Records, entertained the CRS audience with already familiar chart hitting singles “Ooh La La” and “Keep On Loving You” that earned them the winning title of CMT’s “Can You Duet?” Joshua Scott Jones and Meghan Linsey also performed a couple of soulful ballads from their new released debut album that debuted at spot #3 on Billboard® charts right off the release.

Steel Magnolia (Photo: Jack Waren/NMM)

Columbia Nashville artist Josh Thompson got some plugs from his artist peers & friends in his intro video including testimonials from Miranda Lambert, Dierks Bentley, John Anderson, Eric Church leading up to his first song on his set when he took off on stage. We don’t believe there was a pair of legs in the whole concert hall that didn’t start tapping along Josh’ rocking country hits like “Blame It On Waylon” and “Beer On The Table” among hits from his latest album “Way Out Here“.

Josh Thompson (Photo: Jack Waren/NMM)

Next up was The Band Perry, also signed to Big Machine Records, who ‘s amazing last year may just might get eclipsed by this year’s achievements: In February they reached Certified Gold® for their debut album and soon after they were named ACM‘s “Top New Duo Or Group for 2011“. Reid, Kimberly and Neil Perry accepted the award just before the CRS Show in Nashville at the ACM 2011 Music City Jam event. They captivated the audience with hit songs like ”You Lie” ,”Hip To My Heart” and their huge radio hit “If I Die Young“. We will definitely keep watching and following as they will hit other milestones…and enjoy more of their music and performances!

Reid, Kimberly and Neil (L-R) of The Band Perry (Photo: Jack Waren/NMM)

Last “new face”, and certainly not the least, was Arista recording artist Jerrod Niemann. The highlights of his performance included his infectiously catchy tunes “Lover, Lover” and “What Do You Want From Me“. We just learned of his newly launched tour with Lee Brice titled “Higher Education” that just launched Thursday in Missouri. They also announced Tyler Farr, another fresh face to country music, will be joining the tour. Check the tour dates and locations at Jerrod’s official page.

We here at Nashville Music Minute wanted to give you, our listeners the “inside scoop” on CRS. Most of you are saying, “what isCRS”? Well, it stands for Country Radio Seminar. It also happens to be the BIGGEST party in Nashville, but shhhhh, it’s kind of a secret…and it’s all about Country Radio and Country Artists!

Every year in March, country radio stations, radio staff, DJ’s and popular radio personalities come to Nashville for the CRS. This is the event where artists showcase their new songs for radio. It’s also a place where Program Directors, Music Directors and other radio personnel can go to daily seminars and learn about what’s new in radio – and especially in Country Radio. The fun part of the week is seeing all the stars perform and new stars emerge.

This year Blake Shelton will hosts the Music City Jam and he expects to have a few friends show up to play along with him “When I play I normally invite a bunch of friends to play with me, because usually half way thru I’ve had too much too drink to be performing”, here his personal invitation video:

Some of the featured performers will include: The Band Perry, Steel Magnolia, Lee Brice, Jerrod Niemann along with Luke Bryan, Vince Gill, David Nail, Jamey Johnson, Sugarland, Josh Turner, Easton Corbin, Billy Currington, Clay Walker, Bo Bice, Ronnie Dunn and many many more! Look for exclusive interviews, photos and some great behind the scenes later from this star studded three-day event…both here on the blog pages and on our Facebook page!

So, just stay tuned for interviews, and performances from Nashville and CRS 2011!

As we are getting ready to turn our calendars and ears to a new year of new great music, there are a handful of new artists who have already proved this year they will be well worth following-up closely in 2011! Here’s our end-of-the-year new artist round-up highlights:

Easton Corbin capped off a great year among a promising group of new Nashville artists, taking home three Breakthrough Artist trophies from the premier airing of the American Country Awards on December 6. With a banner run that includes a Billboard Hot Country® Songs number one placement for his first single release, “A Little More Country Than That“, the introduction of his self-titled debut album , and a second single, “Roll With It“, topping the country music charts, Corbin’s 2010 has definitely been striking gold.

Meanwhile, The Band Perry also had a stellar year. The release of their first album, plus a dazzling debut for their hit single, “If I Die Young,” which claimed the catbird seat at #1 on the country charts and received a Grammy nomination for Song of the Year, mean that Kimberly, Reid and Neil of the Band Perry are riding high on the tail end of 2010, and enjoying every minute of it. Says Kim, “our very favorite thing to do is to just go out on stage every night with country music lovers and to sing country songs together.”

Not to be outdone, Steel Magnolia, a duo comprised of real-life sweethearts Meghan Linsey and Joshua Scott Jones, received the coveted nomination of Top New Vocal Duo from the Academy of Country Music Awards in 2010 as well as a nomination in the same category from the Country Music Association Awards, along with the CMT Music Awards nomination for Duo Video of the Year for Steel Magnolia’s hit single “Keep on Lovin’ You.”

Other notable new country artists enjoying major accomplishments in 2010 include Jerrod Niemann, whose 2010 debut single entitled “Lover, Lover “, a cover Sonia Dada‘s “You Don’t Treat Me No Good,” reached number one on the country music charts in August, and Justin Moore, whose singles “Backwoods” climbed to the sixth rung on the Top Ten ladder, and “How I Got to Be This Way” made the top 20. Popular new artist Sunny Sweeney released her first single in June of 2010, entitled “From a Table Away,” which rocketed smack dab into Billboard’s Hot Country® Song chart.

We are sure to hear and see more from all of them in the coming year, and from some of them sooner than later: Steel Magnolia is scheduled to release their first full-size album on Januray 11, 2011. When we last spoke with Meghan and Scott, they mentioned that “Good things have always happen to them with number “11″”, thus the release date was set based on their favorite number. We can be quite sure many more good things will happen with them….with number “11″ or not!